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Confederate States
The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, the CSA, the CS, the South and Dixie) was the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S. The CSA's de facto control over its claimed territory varied during the course of the American Civil War, depending on the success of its military in battle. Each state declared its secession from the United States, which became known as the Union during the ensuing civil war, following the November 1860 election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. presidency on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, a new Confederate government was established in February. States volunteered militia units and the new government hastened to form its own Confederate States Army from scratch. After the American Civil War began in earnest in April, four slave states of the Upper South—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina—also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy later accepted Missouri and Kentucky as members, although neither officially declared secession nor were they ever largely controlled by Confederate forces; Confederate shadow governments attempted to control the two states but were later exiled from them. The United States government rejected secession and considered the Confederacy illegal. The actual fighting began with the 1861 Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina which was claimed by both sides. No foreign government officially recognized the Confederacy as an independent country, although Britain and France (both of which gained by a distracted U.S.) granted it belligerent status, which allowed Confederate agents to contract with private concerns for arms and other supplies. The South's insistence on the preservation and expansion of slavery as its primary reason for secession prevented any other country from extending recognition. Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the CS military's inability to secure a convincing military victory further stymied official recognition. By 1865, after very heavy fighting largely on Confederate soil, CSA forces were defeated and the Confederacy collapsed. Confederate States in Crosstime Traffic Crosstime Traffic was aware of several alternates in which the Confederate States had won the American Civil War and survived into the late 21st Century. Footage of a race riot which took place in one of these alternates was shown to Jeremy Solters and his fellow students in US history class. Confederate States in The Guns of the South The Confederate States was on the verge of collapse in 1864, until members of the racist, neo-Nazi white supremacist White South African group Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging travelled through time from the 21st century. Their leader, Andries Rhoodie, and his group provided Confederate general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and General Joseph Johnston's Army of Tennessee with large numbers of AK-47s and small amounts of other supplies. The advanced rifles made up for the CSA's lack of manpower and industry. After a critical Battle of Bealeton, Virginia, where Union troops were overwhelmed and defeated by the new weapons, Lee led his troops to Washington City, captured the city, and President Abraham Lincoln. Thus ended the Second American Revolution, as Lincoln was forced to concede defeat and Britain and France soon after extended diplomatic recognition to the CSA. After the war, the new government began the process of building itself into a functional country. Certain people, including Robert E. Lee, had learned the truth about the time-traveling Rivington men. Although they told him that slavery had to be preserved for the safety of the white man, Lee grew to distrust them. Possession of two slave states, Missouri and Kentucky, was disputed by the U.S. and the C.S. after the Second American Revolution. Eventually, the decision was made to hold a plebiscite in both states to resolve the issue. Despite interference from partisans of both sides- and the Rivington men, who attempted to ship AK-47s into those states to help rig the voting centers- Missouri ultimately voted to remain in the United States, while Kentucky voted to secede and joined the Confederate States. When Rhoodie attempted to dictate how Lee would conduct his presidency upon his election in 1867, Lee broke with them altogether, and began pushing for manumission of the slaves. The Rivington men attacked Lee at his inauguration on March 4, 1868, but failed to kill him. The Confederacy retaliated by attacking their offices in Richmond, and the town of Rivington, North Carolina. Though both efforts were costly and the latter took months, the Confederate States' superior numbers inevitably ground the Rivington men down to total defeat. The Confederate States began production of its own reverse-engineered AK-47s as Lee settled into his six-year term, and stayed neutral as the United States went to war with the British Empire and invaded Canada. The capturing of such weapons and items as "torpedoes" (land mines), "endless repeaters" (belt-fed machine guns), barbed wire, computers, gasoline-powered generators, electrical systems, and mortar launchers from 2014- as well as the fact that surviving Rivington men had begun cooperating with the Confederate government to help them understand the captured weapons and technology to earn their eventual freedom- guaranteed the CSA would hold a substantial technological edge over all other nations for many years to come. Repulsed by the Rivington men and startled by books from the future that Lee showed them in which slavery and racism were increasingly reviled by generations hence, the Confederate Congress passed Lee's proposed bill to slowly but steadily abolish slavery in the Confederacy. Confederate States in "The Last Reunion" The Confederate States was defeated during the Civil War. The veterans who survived the war began a series of reunions to commemorate the defeated South. The men who died during the war continued to re-enact the battles which cost them their lives, although in a far more congenial way than they had in life, reflecting Valhalla. They were in camps, in their old companies and woke to reveille and followed the usual routine of roll-call and breakfast. They then heard the drum-call to battle and re-enacted one that they had previously fought, some dying others being wounded. After the fight was over, win or lose, the dead came to life and the wounds healed. They then fraternized with the Federal soldiers, who had died in life, as though a truce had been called, trading and talking without a care. As survivors of the war died, through accident, illness or old age, they rejoined their fallen comrades in their old units. Such was the fate of John Houston Thorpe when he died in 1932 while attending a reunion of veterans in Richmond, Virginia. Confederate States in "Lee at the Alamo" The Confederate States started out as an agreement between seven states which seceded from the United States at the turn of 1860-1861, in protest of the controversial election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Tension built between the seceded states and those still loyal, until February 1861, when Confederate forces in Texas attacked the United States Army garrison at the Alamo. Soon after this, four more states seceded and joined the Confederacy. Civil war had begun. Confederate States in "Must and Shall" The Confederate States were brought back into line after President Abraham Lincoln was killed on July 12, 1864 while inspecting the redoubts around Washington City. His successor, Hannibal Hamlin, managed to push back the Confederates and crush the Great Rebellion. The peace forced upon the Confederacy included a harsh period of occupation and the promotion of Blacks to important offices, leading to long-term animosity between the inhabitants of the South and the North, as well as racial tensions throughout the former Confederate States. During World War II, Nazi Germany smuggled weapons into the South to stir up revolt and distract the U.S. government. Confederate States in Southern Victory , the Confederate States had 15 states following the reclaiming of Kentucky and Houston.]] The Confederate States of America (1861-1944) won the War of Secession in 1862, gaining its independence and a built-up hereditary enmity with the United States that would continue into the Second Mexican War, The Great War, and The Second Great War. Confederate Institutions Presidency As in the United States, the President was the head of state and the most powerful person in the country. Prior to Jake Featherston's election, no president of the C.S.A. could hold more than one 6-year term in office, although Featherston's predecessor, Burton Mitchel, was allowed to run on his own since he originally took power when Wade Hampton V was assassinated shortly after beginning his term. After the passing of the so-called Seven Words Amendment, the president was eligible for unlimited reelection. Before the rise of the Freedom Party, the President was always elected as the candidate of the Whig Party. Supreme Court In 1866, the C.S. Supreme Court was established with similar function as its U.S. counterpart, albeit with seven rather than nine justices. The supreme court was eliminated by order of Jake Featherston after it struck down his dam-building program. Slavery Slavery was continued in the Confederate States through the Second Mexican War. In 1881, President James Longstreet promised to introduce and support a constitutional amendment banning slavery after the war's successful conclusion. As a result, Britain and France entered an alliance with the Confederate States and helped knock the United States out of the war. While former slaves were technically free, they were not able to become citizens, were forced to carry passbooks, and remained heavily segregated. Foreign Policy The CSA developed long lasting alliances with Britain, France, and the Empire of Mexico. These alliances helped them win the War of Secession and the Second Mexican War, and grew into the Quadruple Entente (CSA, France, England, and Russia) during the early 20th Century. During both the Great War and Second Great War, the CSA declared war against the all of Central Powers, but its only real enemy was the United States. They fought four wars against each other in the years between 1861 and 1944. After the Second Mexican War the CSA tried to isolate itself from its northern neighbor, but this policy was unsuccessful. War was almost fought in the 1890s when the U.S. protested a Confederate plan to build a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in Nicaragua, but the CSA backed down. Between 1914 and 1917, the CSA lost Kentucky, Sequoyah, Houston, and chunks of Virginia, Arkansas, and Sonora to the USA during the Great War. The 1920s were a period of relative isolation; aside from aiding its ally Emperor Maximilian III during the Mexican Civil War, the CSA largely kept to itself. Under Jake Featherston, the Confederates renewed their ties to the European Entente powers and set about regaining lost territory. The Richmond Agreement of 1940 proved to be the CSA's greatest diplomatic triumph, as Kentucky and Houston were regained without firing a shot. From the Second Great War onwards, however, the CSA failed to secure either its remaining territories or peace from the United States, and was only able to bully its Mexican ally into providing extra manpower. In 1943, as CSA forces began their long retreat, the USA began the final campaign to reabsorb all lost territory. While the Confederacy was able to use North America's first superbomb on Philadelphia in 1944, it was too little, too late for the country, as the USA was able to build more, and deployed them, effectively breaking the CSA. Featherston was killed while fleeing into the country's south. With his death, his successor Don Partridge surrendered, and the CSA was effectively dissolved and the country was divided into occupation zones. See also * The Fredonian Rebellion, a failed attempt to create a new state in Nacogdoches, Texas in December 1826-January, 1827 against the Mexican government in OTL. In "Hail! Hail!", the time-lost Marx Brothers rewrite history, resulting in a successful rebellion that births a slaveholding "Confederal government" well into the 20th century with a flag that has a white St. Andrew's Cross comprised of 15 red stars. * The Northern provinces of Detina, a fantasy analog of the Confederate States of America in The War Between the Provinces series. Category:American Civil War * Category:Unrecognized Countries (OTL) Confederate States Confederate States Confederate States Category:Lee at the Alamo Confederate States Confederate States Category:Countries in North America (Fictional Work) Category:Former Countries (Fictional Work)